all tied up…

This knot dresses the bottom end of a length of 2 Bight Turk’s Head which was done in an open weave. It is also a remeinder of the time when I was just learning to put interweaves on my Turk’s Head knots. Today I probably wouldn’t leave this knot on a walking stick for the world to see. At the time, it was near the top of my knotting skills. I’m sure if I’m still alive in another 15 years, I’ll say the same about the pictures I’m taking today. Of course, it could be much worse — if you practice a skill for 10 or 15 years and you didn’t get better that would be much worse.

The knot of today’s post is:

This is a bi-colored Pineapple knot. If I remeber correctly, and I wouldn’t bet the farm on it, the base knot in white paracord was of 9 Leads X 8 Bights. The intereave was done with the wider visual border created by stopping the weave one crossing short of the standard Pineapple knot. Using Tom Hall’s nomenclature, as near as I can figure it, this would have a 2–2 structure.

To the right of this knot you can see the start of the next. My Lady Rose likes the look of a more open weave. Both of these knots exhibit this nature, the next more so than this.

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Medicine Bottle #43; Back to the more normal prescription medicine bottles. This bottle is about 4″ overall; the knot covers just barely over 2″ of that. This knot didn’t increase the diameter too much, but it did make it much easier to open.

The knot on this bottle is:

This knot has my PPA (Phony Patent Pending) edge treatment. By stopping short of the edge bights of the knot by one crossing, a bolder border is formed. Particularly if two different colored knots abut one another, this makes for a more well-defined edge between them. Besides, this is the look that My Lady Rose likes.

The base knot in this interweave is a Turk’s Head of 13 Leads X 12 Bights, in green and black paracord. I always wondered how one specified the structure of a Herringbone or Pineapple knot. Last year I bought Tom Hall’s excellent work on the Turk’s Head and some of its variants. Now I know that I should give the total counted Leads and Bights, as well as which type of knot it is. As near as I can puzzle out, by his system this knot would be: a Pineapple knot of 2 passes, with an edge type of 2-2, with a total of 23 Leads X 25 Bights.

There is a saying around this part of the country: I don’t know much, and I don’t understand all I know. That about sums up me and my relationship to some of these knots.

If I am just tying whichever knot pops to mind and choosing whether or not to insinuate an interweave with its structure later, I call that “The Monkey Method Of Tying Knots”. I am quite capable of tying a knot which I can only roughly name. Trying to eliminate that hole in my knowledge of knots is taking some work, more work than actually cranking out the knots. I persevere, but progress only slowly — if I were a boat I would be a barge: slow, slab-sided and ungainly, without is own power source or steering gear, blundering along and going as much where the current goes as where I wish.

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This is the next piece in the “Ensnared Golf Ball Collection”. If any of you are wondering why I — a never-played-golf-in-my-life type person — has all these golf balls lying around to tie knots on, there is a logical reason. I tie most of my practice knots in hand. That means they end up being in a relatively narrow size range. It depends on how many fingers I use, and how tight I tie the initial knot. That size range just happens to coincide with golf balls and your average hot sauce bottle. I tried saving money by using ping-pong balls, but I crushed them all well before I had the knots worked down tight. So I buy inexpensive practice golf balls — hollow plastic. They are of questionable pedigree and virtue, but seem to stand up to most of my knots. There are occasional crush failures, but not often. The problem is solved, for very little money invested.

And now On With The Show — The knot on this ball is a Pineapple interweave, done on a base Turk’s Head of 11 Leads X 10 Bights. This gives a final count of ??!?? beats me — I think I can maybe count a Herringbone knot with some accuracy. A Pineapple knot — how and what do you count — which Bights — only the base knot? How far in do the Bights on the interweave have to be before they are no longer counted? One tuck, or three, which is too far? I am open to, even asking for, someone who has a system to let me in on the secret handshake and decoder ring stuff.

Like some of my other knots, this one had actually started to make the plastic on the far rim of the knot flow and flex. Discretion being the better part of valor, I stopped cranking down on it and dressed it. If I were an artiste I would say that I let the knot be itself and develop as its inner longings guided it. My brain just doesn’t work that way — I want the demon-ridden things to do as I desire.

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Thank you for investing the time and effort you put into looking at my site. I greatly appreciate the fact that you do have to make that investment, to come see the parade of knots. I will always try to make it worth your while. Come back again; the latest winter equinox rituals for the Gods Of Knots And Ropes seems to have been successful:

This small bottle has one of those demon inhabited opening-resistant caps. The diameter of the Hell blasted thing is just under 1″. The cap is just barely larger — with hands the size of mine it doesn’t work as advertised. When I get a firm enough grip on the bottle to open it, you can only see/touch the cap by looking down into my fist. I could improve this only by throwing it out, or tying knots on it to make up for at least part of its shortcomings. Now let’s see …. William ties knots every day …. he also hates to throw out anything that can be made to work … I wonder, do you think he would tie some knots on this thing and try to bind that demon. Yes Sir, that is just what I did.

The cap was so thin and slick that turning it was a problem. In addition, you had to push down with about 4 pounds of force to unlock the mechanism. When you’ve done that,the problem is holding the bottle firmly enough to resist the applied force levels.

The only way out for me was to tie knots. The knots on this bottle were, from the lid:

The cap/lid was made easier to grip and turn by clapping on a Spanish Ring knot. This increased the diameter and also added a high-friction surface so you could turn it without looking like you were practicing some schtick for a live slapstick act.

This left you with the problems of the bottle itself. It was way too thin, and way too slick. This led to a 7 Lead X 5 Bight, Turk’s Head knot being conscripted to act as a mouse. Over this went a Turk’s Head knot of 7 Lead X 6 Bight, doubled in white paracord. I then gave it a Pineapple interweave. Because the interweave is a single strand as opposed to the doubled base knot, it has an unusual look. It is however, as far as function goes, an elegant answer to the problem. The moused-out Pineapple knot is just large enough to fill the hollow of my palm so I can hold the bottle tight enough to grasp it with my off hand. Then it is just — squeeze very firmly (note: back off if you hear cracking noises) — make sure enough of the cap is out far enough to push and twist it open.

I can get it open if I’m fully alert and don’t get mistaken for someone trying to do a magic trick. …..Hey, you’re cheating, I can see the bottle!

I will be happy to see this one go, even though it has served its function, and generally kept its mouth shut about the job conditions. It is just that it doesn’t belong to the E-Z-Open class of bottles.

Careful observers can see that the Pineapple knot has distinctly visible undulating ribs. This is in part an artifact induced from the mouse material and the way I worked the knot. When I saw that they wanted to show a slight rib, I coaxed them to go that way …. only someone who has been subjected to greatly coercive treatment like maybe torture …. or a long dragged-out divorce … could understand what I mean when I say coaxed.

This is one bottle that has good knots on it, but one I won’t miss. The underlying bottle with the label which says ” Made in Hades by Mephisto Manufacturing, LTD”. tells me all I need to know.

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Every once in a while I remind myself that my real hobby is tying knots, not taking pictures. This is one of those times. It says right here on the box that you should never visually decapitate your photo subject, and that framing space is important. Yep … that’s true. Unfortunately my camera does not have a time travel function, so this is the shot that will have to do.

The knots on this bottle are, from the top:

The neck of the bottle sports a white Gaucho knot of 2 passes; done in paracord. The finished knot counts out to 13 Leads X 16 Bights.

The next knots are a little confusing — both visually and to try and explain. The lower part of the neck is moused out with a knot tied in 5/16″ utility cord. The Bight count is 10 — the Lead count is mmufmp-mum-murkle. I lost the cheat sheet and forgot the knot. It doesn’t seem to mind, and performs its duty as a mouse without complaint. You can see the top rim of this knot between those that surround it. I do not remember the things that led up to it ending up like this — I’m sure I had some logical sounding ideas at the time — or maybe I meant to cover it up later with another knot and it fell through the cracks.

The next knot covers the moused out portion of the neck and the upper part of the shoulders. The base knot is a Turk’s Head of 9 Leads X 8 Bights, doubled, in black paracord. This knot is one of my standards. The upper portion of this knot has an interweave done in white paracord, also doubled. The top edge would qualify as a Herringbone in a more customary use. The bottom part of the interweave would be called a Pineapple knot in normal usage. What do I call this usage. Beats me … what the canonical nomenclature would be I haven’t got the foggiest notion. Maybe a Herringbone/Pineapple knot? I’ll let you decide based on the description given, and your personal naming system.Under this knot, and the first knot fully on the body of the bottle, is a Spanish Ring knot. It is done in the same 5/16″ utility cord used for the mouse.

The main feature knot on the body is a bi-color Gaucho knot of 2 passes, done in paracord. I have always called this two-toned effect a “Lightning Stroke”. I have lately heard that a Gaucho knot is called a “Lightning Knot” in some parts of Australia. I can not vouch for this, but given that many of the people tying these knots in isolated parts of that country probably didn’t have a copy of Mr. Grant’s book on horse tack and braiding, they could have come up with the name the same way I did.

The black knot on the bottom of the bottle is of 9 Leads X 36 Bights. It is done in an over 2, under 2, weave of black paracord. It is tied in what I have seen called a “W” knot, a 2 pass Gaucho knot, which, when looked at with the knot going around a horizontal cylinder, shows a “W” in the weave pattern. Or I guess more properly 36 “W’s” — one for each Bight.

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This is the next piece from the “Hot Sauce Bottle Collection”. It also ended up being one of the bottles which I chose to try new things on. After putting knots on many of its kin, I have to try something new to fight boredom — and to try to improve my skills.

The knots on this bottle are, from the top:

The lid has a black Spanish Ring knot tied with gutted paracord.

The neck of the bottle is covered with a Turk’s Head of 9 Leads X 7 Bights, doubled in white paracord. It is of over 2, under 2, weave.

The green knot just below this is a Turk’s Head of the same count of Leads, Bights, and the same weave — but done with a single strand.

The black knot on the shoulders of the bottle is a Turk’s Head of 9 Leads X 7 Bights, doubled, of over 1,under 1 weave.

The last 3 knots were done to explore variations on a theme. The same count for the Leads & Bights, but still very different visually. The manipulations produced such differences that at first glance they don’t look as if they have anything in common.

The thin white knot below this is a Spanish Ring knot.

The green knot sandwiched between the 2 white ones is another Turk’s Head of 9 Leads X 7 Bights. It was done in a single strand, with an over 2, under 2, weave.

The next knot is a Spanish Ring knot done in white paracord. The reason it looks vastly different from the other Spanish Ring knot is that I started with a 3 Lead Turk’s Head which had a much higher Bight count.

The knot on the bottom of the bottle is the true novelty of this bunch. I started it off with a Turk’s Head of 11 Leads X 10 Bights, done in a single strand of black paracord. I then did a Pineapple interweave but restricted it to the first 3 rings of crossings. There is then an unadorned section of one crossing’s width. In the lowest ring of crossings I did another Pineapple interweave — but only of one ring.

This bottle from top to bottom proved to be a very satisfying exercise in knots. I realize that many people will not think it was worth the trouble for the finished look. To me it is the process as well as the product — both are fulfilling in their own ways. If other people also enjoy the end item, that is just an extra plus.

Thank you for coming by my site. I do greatly appreciate all your visits and any comments you leave. Come back again; the parade of knots goes on:

My Lady Rose makes allowances for my predilection for tying knots on anything that can’t outrun me and doesn’t bite me first. Over time she has seen the utility in some of the things I do. Lanyards, fobs, and leashes are some of the things she has grown to appreciate having on her own things. Its a fair trade deal: I tie them, and she cuts me slack on some of the other things I want to adorn with knots. I do suspect she averages in a testosterone fudge factor, but however she arrives at it, we have a deal.

All of the statements I have made in various posts dealing with lanyards and their kin also apply here. I seem to have a mental preset for what constitutes a proper size fob for scissors. I have made 4 or 5 of them, all without preplaning, or measuring — they are all within an ace of being the same length and look much alike.

The knots on this one are, from the attachment point:

I cut 4 strands of paracord in a neon green. I then made a short section of 4 strand braid and folded it across the handle. Next I seized the strands with a constrictor knot.

I plaited a 3″ section of 8 strand square sinnet next. At the outboard end of the sinnet, I tied another constrictor knot to act as a seizing.

I then fed 2 of the strands through the center of a wooden bead. I worked a short section of 6 strand crown sinnet over the bead. Then I seized all 8 strands close below the bead with another constrictor knot.

To help add bulk to the head of the tassel I put on a whipping, about 1 1/2″ long.

Finally, I returned to the handle end, and dressed the transition points with Turk’s Head knots.

The Turk’s Head just below the handle is one of my standards. It has 5 Leads X 4 Bights — this knot closes up nicely on small-diameter rounds.

The knot just above the bead is a 3 Lead X 8 Bight Turk’s Head.

The knot just below the bead is a Pineapple knot that counts out to 10 Leads X 8 Bights in its finished form.

I trimmed the ends of all 8 strands to give a rough, but very robust, tassel. Having a tassel on the end greatly increases the odds of seeing it even on a very crowded desk. After a day of shuffling papers it seems there are always a couple of strands of the tassel in easy view — even if the scissors have crawled off and tried to hide by burrowing under something.

Thank you for coming by my site. Sing out if you see any way I can improve either my site, or my knots. I always appreciate any thoughtful comments — and you don’t need to be a knot tyer to comment. Your thoughts on the looks of things are as important to me as your thoughts on the structure of the knots. After all, most of the people who end up with the knots that leave home don’t tie knots — they judge only on looks or usefulness. That is as it should be; it would be unfair to expect people to comment outside their area of knowledge. Come back again. If you see me in the parade, wave; it makes me feel better to know someone is watching:
William